DE BLASIO dumped by his own pick for schools chancellor — SCHNEIDERMAN's role in the WEINSTEIN sale — Batten the Hatches! A Nor-easter's coming...

03/02/2018 07:20 AM EST

Presented by FWD.us

By Jimmy Vielkind in Albany and Laura Nahmias in Manhattan, with Daniel Lippman

Mayor Bill de Blasio has been subjected to his fair share of embarrassments. He was given a speaking slot out of primetime at the Democratic National Convention in 2016 just before the “In Memoriam” segment, has been accused of playing a role in the death of a beloved groundhog and endured a ceaseless parade of taunts and jibes from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his proxies.

Indeed, according to the New York Times this morning, “a measure of panic began to set in at New York’s City Hall on Wednesday night, after the initial news reports and indications that Mr. Carvalho appeared to be getting cold feet,” an anonymous source familiar with the matter said.

“Late into the evening, phone calls went back and forth between New York and Miami. At one point, at least one senior administration official spoke by phone with Mr. Carvalho, who reiterated the promise he had made about taking the job, according to the person. Mr. Carvalho did not suggest he was backing out of the job on Wednesday, the person said, but instead offered logistical and other reasons for remaining in Florida that day.”

The Carvalho pick was well-received when de Blasio announced it on Wednesday, but Florida reporters more familiar with the man who’d earned the nickname “Mr. Armani,” and is rumored to covet higher office, saw the writing on the wall. This wasn’t Carvalho’s first moment of public indecision. And past scandals, including decade-old accusations of an affair with a former Miami Herald reporter, were being resurrected by New York City reporters as soon as word broke de Blasio intended to pick Carvalho. By staying in Miami, he’ll dodge the media feeding frenzy. Now, de Blasio will go back to the drawing board.

50% of adults in America have had a family member in jail or prison. Our new report shows how the long reach of incarceration extends well beyond the jail and prison walls to the families on the other side. EverySecond.fwd.us

WHERE’S ANDREW? In New York City with no announced public schedule.

WHERE’S BlLL? Making his regular weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show and then jetting off to Atlanta for a rally with RWDSU workers

The Tabloids: — New York Post: “JILTED! Miami schools boss dumps de Blasio — on live TV”— Daily News: “SCHOOLS CANCELLER”— See Them

People Get Ready —via Time Out New York: “A nor’easter will turn NYC into a cold, miserable hellscape this weekend” when “an estimated two to three inches of rainfall will pour down on Gotham, with the potential of heavy, wet snow entering the mix as temperatures drop into the 30s on Friday. The National Weather Service has also issued a high-wind watch from Friday afternoon through Friday evening and is projecting storm force gusts of up to 70 miles per hour along the city’s waterways and coasts, as well as a coastal flood advisory for the region from Friday through Saturday. The rapidly intensifying storm is the product of ‘bombogenesis,’ which occurs when a ‘midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies’ and quickly drops in atmospheric pressure, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. The same conditions gave us the phrase ‘Bomb Cyclone’ in January, when a blizzard hit the city and led Governor Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency.”

MORE PLACARD PROBLEMS — Streetsblog: “In the competition to use city-issued parking placards to immiserate the greatest number of bus-riding New Yorkers, the 13th Precinct on the East Side of Manhattan gives the cops and court officers of downtown Brooklyn a run for their money. It’s not quite the all-day, every-day bus lane blockage you see on Livingston Street in Brooklyn, but when the 13th Precinct decides to occupy a chunk of the Second Avenue bus lane, they really commit. And they slow down the bus for very large numbers of people — the M15, which plies First and Second Avenue, is the second highest ridership bus route in the city, carrying about 45,000 trips each weekday. Personal vehicles and squad cars from the 13th Precinct routinely obstruct the Second Avenue bus lane in the vicinity of 20th Street, stealing time from transit-riding New Yorkers.” Read more here

PAPERS SUE OVER BODY CAMS — New York Post’s Julia Marsh: “The New York Post and 13 other news organizations are asking a Manhattan judge to keep open the public’s access to NYPD body-cam footage after the police union sued the city to keep the recordings private. “Because body-worn camera footage and other recordings provide an objective, first-hand account of police interactions with citizens, they can be particularly valuable sources of information for members of the press when reporting on matters of public concern,” the media outlets argue in a new Manhattan Supreme Court filing. In January, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association sued the mayor and the NYPD claiming they were breaking the law by releasing body-cam footage without getting a court order first. The union claims the state’s Civil Rights Law 50-A bars the public airing of the recordings because they are part of officers’ personnel records, which are exempt from disclosure.” Read more here

— "NYC-area airports rank among worst for delays in U.S.," by New York Daily News' Dan Rivoli: "Flying the friendly skies in New York means delays, which are among the worst in the nation, according to a new study from an industry group. Whether landing or taking off, New York-area airports have a low rate of on-time trips, according to a report from the Global Gateway Alliance, which advocates for airport improvements. At the same time, the Port Authority set a new travel record last year, carrying 132.6 million passengers. That's a slight increase from the travel record set in 2016. Newark-Liberty Airport was the worst of the worst among the nation's major airports, with an on-time rate of 70.5% last year. LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports were also in the bottom five in the rankings of the 30 busiest facilities in the country — JFK, at no. 27, had a 74.2% on-time rate, while LaGuardia was 28th with a 73.9% rate. More here.

DEEP DIVE -- “I Knew They Would Say ‘She’s 18, So What’s the Big Deal’: She ‘Provoked’ Him: Columbia’s Old Policies Let A Professor Off The Hook For Serial Sexual Harassment,” by BuzzFeed’s Ema O’Connor and Davey Alba: “An Ivy League school found a professor [Thomas Roma] responsible for sexually harassing his student, then kept him employed for two more decades. The school has changed its policies since then, but what happens to the still-employed professors who were let off the hook by old rules?” http://bzfd.it/2CT3Oui

WHAT ALBANY IS READING:

CUOMO’S CHANGE OF HEART — New York Times’s Shane Goldmacher and Brian Rosenthal: “Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration is reinterpreting its reinterpretation. In the five days since The New York Times reported that Mr. Cuomo had construed an executive order to enable himself to collect roughly $890,000 in campaign money from his appointees to state boards, the administration has insisted the order was never meant to apply to most board appointees. But its rationale, as well as its reading of the executive order, seems to be shifting. When first questioned about the donations last week, administration officials said they believed the order only barred donations from salaried state employees and board members who could be fired by the governor.

On Tuesday, as the Democratic governor’s rivals criticized the practice, administration officials added a new caveat, saying for the first time that to be covered by the order, board members also had to be required to file financial disclosure reports to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The disclosure requirement, which does not appear in the order — and which Cuomo administration officials did not mention in a 30-minute call last Friday or in several written statements — would dramatically water down the directive, even from the administration’s first interpretation, freeing many more appointees to give cash to the governor’s campaign.” Read more here.

— THE PERCOCO PRECEDENT — POLITICO’s Laura Nahmias: If former senior Cuomo aide Joe Percoco is acquitted, the verdict could potentially open a new floodgate of pay-to-play schemes in New York. The case, now being deliberated by a jury, is one of the first major public corruption trials in New York since a landmark 2016 Supreme Court ruling significantly narrowed the definition of what actually constitutes public corruption. The decision, which overturned the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, has led to speculation in New York that convicting anyone on public corruption charges would become virtually impossible in all but the most explicit cases of favor-trading. In Percoco’s case, there’s no question the defendants accused of bribing him wanted specific actions from New York’s government. As in McDonnell, the question is whether there’s evidence Percoco agreed to take those official actions in exchange for money.

But for good government groups, a more serious question emerges from another of the alleged schemes: Was it illegal for Percoco to accept payments when he was ostensibly working for the governor’s reelection campaign and not the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo? “We were just joking in our office that everyone on the second floor should resign and become a volunteer paid by the campaign, because we don’t know of any laws that prohibit volunteers from acting on behalf of an elected official,” said John Kaehny, executive director of good government group Reinvent Albany. “It raises the question of massive violations of state anti-corruption laws and ethics laws.” Read more here

— “No matter the outcome of the federal trial of Joseph Percoco, Cuomo may need a raw steak to go with the ziti that was an ingredient in the courtroom drama,” writes the New York Times’ editorial board. “The steak would be for the black eye he has suffered in this corruption case, now in the jury’s hands.”

— WILL HE OR WON’T HE? — POLITICO’s Jimmy Vielkind: As Republicans gather today in Saratoga Springs, the big question involves Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, and whether he’ll show up and declare himself a candidate for governor. We spoke to several Republican leaders yesterday about the coming confab, which has technically been called to give the party’s formal nomination to Chele Chiavacci Farley to run against U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. One summed it up like this: “If Molinaro shows up tomorrow, I think we’ll have a straw poll. If not, [Sen. John] DeFrancisco will be the guy. The chairs are not going to entertain a dance with someone who’s just thinking about it. … Everybody’s waiting on the man from Dutchess.” Joseph Holland is also running for governor after party leaders gelled around Farley for the Senate nomination.

— SCHNEIDERMAN GOOSES WEINSTEIN SALE — New York Times’ Brooks Barnes: “In a surprise twist in the continuing saga of the Weinstein Company, an investor group said on Thursday that it had reached an agreement to buy most of the assets of the near-bankrupt studio, just days after a deal had been declared all but dead. ‘This next step represents the best possible pathway to support victims and protect employees,’ Maria Contreras-Sweet, who leads the investor group, said in a statement. In keeping with the whipsawing sale process, however, it did not become clear that a deal had in fact been completed until the Weinstein Company’s board released a statement several hours later. ‘We consider this to be a positive outcome under what have been incredibly difficult circumstances,’ the statement said. The board also thanked Eric T. Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, who hosted a meeting between the two sides at his offices on Thursday.” Read more here

— FOR THE CORD CUTTERS — Times Union’s Larry Rulison: “Local cable TV provider Spectrum is finally bowing to pressure being exerted by cable-cutting services like Sling TV and YouTube TV by offering its own super-cheap streaming live TV service that costs less than regular cable TV. Spectrum, which is owned by Charter Communications of Stamford, Conn., has quietly started offering what it calls Spectrum TV Choice to a select group of customers in the Capital Region for $21.99 a month. Spectrum TV Choice allows you to pick 10 channels from a menu of 65 channels. Spectrum appears to be appealing to its existing internet customers who are currently getting their live TV channels through a streaming service such as Sling TV, DirectTV Now or YouTube TV. ‘We continue to test and launch new traditional and stream video products to better serve the consumer demand for more choice,’ Charter spokesman Andrew Russell said. ‘We believe non-video, internet-only customers are interested in a smaller, lower-priced bundle. We want to meet the needs of all our customers.’” Read more here

TRUMP’S NEW YORK

— "Trump Ally Was in Talks to Earn Millions in Effort to End 1MDB Probe in U.S.," by The Wall Street Journal's Bradley Hope, Tom Wright and Rebecca Ballhaus: "A top Republican fundraiser close to President Donald Trump was in negotiations to earn tens of millions of dollars if the U.S. Justice Department dropped its investigation into a multibillion-dollar graft scandal involving a Malaysian state investment fund, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In emails dated during the past year, Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist and a longtime Republican donor, and his wife, Robin Rosenzweig, an attorney, discuss setting up a consulting contract with Jho Low, the Malaysian businessman at the center of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. scandal, which brought scrutiny to the country's prime minister, Najib Razak." Read the story here.

MESS TRANSIT — Gillbrand, Booker spar with Chao over Gateway, by POLITICO's Kathryn Wolfe:Senators from New York and New Jersey pressed Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Thursday about why the administration doesn't consider federal loans as equity for the purpose of funding new rail tunnels under the Hudson River. More here.

"I THINK WE WERE ALL ENABLERS," former Miramax executive Paul Webster says in "Weinstein," the first post-scandal documentary about the flood of sexual misconduct allegations against now-disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein. "We were all complicit."

- The Frontline and BBC co-production, airing tonight at 9 p.m. on PBS, also includes interviews with several journalists who investigated accusations of sexual misconduct - including assaults and rape - against Weinstein, including the Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters and the New Yorker's Ken Auletta and Ronan Farrow. Weinstein, Farrow says in the film, "had an incredibly complex machine designed to maintain silence."

- It's a timely release amid a deal being reachedfor the Weinstein Company and ahead of Sunday night's Oscars. The Weinstein revelations opened the door for a reckoning across an industry in which 94 percent of women now say they've experienced harassment or assault. The upcoming awards show, hosted by increasingly political Jimmy Kimmel, writes Variety's Ted Johnson, is shaping up to be "the most political Oscars in decades."

- "The question isn't so much whether politics will be part of the Oscars, it's how these issues will be presented and how often is too often for them to be raised during the evening," Johnson writes. "Trump likely will be the focus of Kimmel's barbs and perhaps a winner's swipes, but this year the issues hanging over the ceremony are about much more than the president's persona."

TOGETHER AGAIN — Kushner-allied editor joins forces with Bridgegate mastermind, by POLITICO's Dana Rubinstein and Ryan Hutchins: Ken Kurson, the former editor of Jared Kushner's Observer who helped draft Donald Trump's 2016 AIPAC speech, has joined forces with David Wildstein, the mastermind of the Bridgegate scandal, to relaunch a news site Wildstein created six months into his court-ordered probation. Wildstein and Kurson confirmed the arrangement in a series of sometimes confusing emails, phone calls and text messages with POLITICO. The collaboration represents the culmination of a years-long relationship between two men, whose political and professional orbits overlap like a Venn diagram. "I'm solely responsible for editorial and we are moving forward together," Wildstein texted. "We've been close friends for 15 years and I'm honored to be part of his team." Read more here.

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REAL ESTATE, with POLITICO New York’s Sally Goldenberg:

LAW AND ORDER — "Will the feds bungle billions?" by The Real Deal's E.B. Solomont and Will Parker:"Harry's Bar — tucked away on the second floor of the Park Lane Hotel — isn't the sexiest place for a nightcap. Narrow and dark, it has heavy wood paneling and low lighting, with no hint of the building's dazzling Central Park views. On a recent weeknight, an anemic crowd sat nursing drinks mostly in silence as an episode of 'Jeopardy!' flickered across a flat-screen TV. It's hard to imagine the hard-partying Malaysian billionaire Jho Low ever had anything to do with the place. But according to federal prosecutors, Low's investment in the Park Lane was part of a massive scheme to defraud a development fund in his home country out of $4 billion. And in 2016, the U.S. government moved to seize the 47-story hotel — where a prominent investment group led by developer Steve Witkoff had planned to build a posh condo tower. ..."But the Department of Justice has had a spotty record when it comes to real estate — including bungled sales and mismanaged properties. And these latest cases are raising questions about whether it's out of its league." Read the story here.

— An Amazon Fantasy — New York Post’s Steve Cuozzo: “Could the Hudson River soon be renamed the Amazon? That’s the dream of real estate investor Charles J. Urstadt, who’s best known as the Battery Park City Authority’s first chairman, from 1968 to 1969. In an ad in The Post on Friday, Urstadt asks the city and state to sell Jeff Bezos’ online retailing giant a 50-acre, underwater site immediately north of Battery Park City for Amazon’s “second headquarters,” or HQ2. Under Urstadt’s plan, the Seattle-based e-tail giant would pay a nominal price, like $5 million, for the underwater land stretching 2,000 feet from north to south and extending 1,000 feet into the river. The city owns the eastern half, and the state owns the western half. Amazon’s new campus would be built on landfill made of Atlantic Ocean sand from south of the Verrazano Bridge.” Read more here.

The Red Bulls beat CD Olimpia, 2-0, to advance to the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals. And Alejandro Romero Cammara, far better known as Kaku, made his Red Bulls debut. He’s a dynamic attacking player best deployed wide, and you should go see him at your earliest opportunity.

The day ahead: the Knicks are in Los Angeles to face the Clippers. The Islanders host the Canadiens. The Rangers travel to Calgary.